Curate Conundrums

  I was speaking to my neighbour the other day, at an appropriate social distance of course, and we got into an unusually long conversation about our lockdown experiences. She spoke of hope, dreams, disappointments ups and downs, and one particular well known phrase kept cropping up; “There’s light at the end of the tunnel.” She reflected perhaps the way many of us might be feeling. Weary but slightly hopeful that things are going to change relatively soon. That hopefully we’re over the worst of it. That soon she would be able to see her grandchildren again. I was speaking to Paul the other day and he asked ‘How are you?’ I responded, ‘Oh you know, not too bad.’ Paul then asked ‘why do people always say oh you know. I don’t know that’s why I’m asking.’ He has a good point. We don’t know. We don’t know how other people are feeling, or what’s going on. Today our Gospel reading shows Jesus doing a similar thing. What do I mean? Well, the people gathered there don’t know wh...

PANIC! The media cries, but don’t actually panic, but panic! This thing is coming, this terrible thing, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it! In the light of all this, it’s very easy to feel powerless, afraid and start to panic. But we’re not. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be careful, far from it, but remaining calm, keeping a clear head is vital for us to protect the most vulnerable. The Coronavirus on average is fatal in about 2-3% of cases, putting that into perspective it means if you get it, you’re most likely to have severe flu, but you are probably not going to die. We should listen to the advice of medical professionals, and take this seriously. I'm not for a moment saying we shouldn't. Precautions are necessary in order to safeguard the most vulnerable.  I wonder if the writer of Ephesians was writing this today what would he say? Put on the breastplate of hand sanitiser? The shield of toilet roll? The sword of facemasks? No actually, all thes...